Denial
by thelittleturtleduck
Summary: She was beginning to fear that denying her feelings was simply not enough anymore. Everyone could see how much she loved the Avatar just by the way she never left his side in his greatest moments of needs. When he awoke screaming and in pain, it was her he was calling for, and she was always there. As tragic as it was, Sokka couldn't help but be concerned.


A/N: Kataang Week: Day Two! This one takes place between "The Crossroads of Destiny" and "The Awakening", this kinda just fills a bit of a void I felt was left between the two episodes. I'm thinking that this was probably when Katara realized how deeply her feelings ran for Aang, and I also see this as the time where she began to fear the thought of this crush of her's turning into genuine love.

Topic: **Complications.**

Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender".

* * *

"Katara" Sokka sighed softly, placing a warm hand on his sister's shoulder, "This isn't healthy, you aren't helping him at all by just sitting here and letting your own health escape you."

His sister barely registered his words, not turning her clouded blue eyes from the injured Avatar in front of her, "Me sleeping wouldn't help him either."

Sokka rolled his eyes, removing his hand from her unmoving shoulder and crossing his arms across his chest, quickly getting tired of his sister's stubborn nature, "Katara, if Aang were here - "

This caught the young girl's attention. She stood quickly from where she had been crouched on the ground beside her friend's lifeless body, which at the moment was resting on a mat beneath the confines of one of the Water Tribe Warrior's tent.

Sokka could see in the pale moonlight that snuck it's way through the slits of the tent, that he had said the wrong words.

"Sokka, don't talk like that!" His sister's voice rose as her fists clenched tightly, knuckles turning a ghastly white, "Aang is here! He's laying right here and you act as if he's dead!"

A few days ago, that had been true though. The Avatar had died. But the water had saved him, had possibly saved the world.

"Katara," Sokka reasoned, holding his hands up as his voice rose as well, "I'm just talking about if he was conscious! Aang wouldn't want you neglecting your own health for his."

Since they had arrived in Chameleon Bay where his father and his warriors were hiding, his sister had barely spoken a word to anyone. She hadn't even properly said much to their father, which shocked Sokka. She had ate a few pieces of bread, but that was it. She hadn't slept a wink since what had happened in Ba Sing Se, which she hadn't even told him what went on there either.

The exhaustion was beginning to show. Her hair was wild and unkempt, her blue eyes were unfocused and blood shot. The blue robes she wore had blood splattered sporadically on them and were wrinkled from not being washed in such a long time. But the determination on her face was clear.

She turned from the young man, summoning water from a basin beside the mat where Aang lay, and creating a glowing aura around her hands. She fell to the ground beside the Avatar, possibly bruising her already purpled knees in the process, and gently applying her practiced hands to the lighting scar on his back.

"You know what I'm saying is true."

She turned to him, her eyes blazing with an unknown fire, "Just leave, Sokka!" she spat, turning away from him and focusing on the injured boy before her, already having done the same healing only an hour before. She couldn't do much at this point, but she had to try.

Her brother stood frusterated behind her, his mouth set in a determined manor, and his blue eyes narrowed. He had to get her out of here.

Without as much as a second thought, he grabbed his sister by the arm and dragged her outside of the confines of the tent. She protested and kicked and hit, but she didn't do anything to quite possibly permanently injure her brother.

One loved one down was enough for her.

"Sokka!" she cried desperately, trying in vein to loosen his grip around her wrist, "Please, stop!" her knee hit a stray rock as he continued to pull the last of her from the tent and she let out a short whimper, legs still kicking fervently, "I can't leave him!"

She wasn't aware of the men staring at the scene before them, sitting around the fire as their dinner boiled, faces mixed with concern and curiousity as they watched the exchange between the brother and sister.

Sokka let go of her wrist, but before she could start to crawl back to the tent where Aang was, he grasped her under her arms and pulled her up into a standing position, grasping her shoulders tightly.

"Katara, you can't do anything for him while you are this tired!" His voice rang through the tense air of the bay, "You are going to make yourself sick doing this! We are all worried, but we can't allow you to do this to yourself!"

His sister's eyes filled with tears as she still continued to try to release herself from his grip, "Please," she whispered desperately, "He needs me."

"Katara, I think at the moment it's the other way around."

Her blue eyes flashed, tears angrily sliding down her paling cheeks, "Well excuse me for being concerned for the world's last chance of hope!"

Sokka shook his head, his grip tightening on her shoulders, "This isn't about the world, and this isn't about the Avatar. This is about your fear of losing Aang."

Katara stopped struggling against her brother's grip, looking up at him angrily, "What do you expect me to do? He's my best friend."

"It's something more, Katara."

Toph scoffed quietly from where she sat next to the Earth King and Basco, staring at the scene in front of her with a bit of sympathy. Did it really take Sugar Queen this long to figure out how much the Avatar meant to her?

"I don't know what you're talking about," The young waterbender muttered, her gaze fixated on the dirt beneath her feet.

"No, I think you do," Sokka said a bit forcefully, shaking her to where her gaze had to return to him, "Katara, you're in love with him."

Finally breaking free of her brother's grasp, the girl backed away a bit, "What?" she demanded, eyes ablaze as the warriors watched, shocked at this new piece of information. Hakoda the most shocked of all.

"Don't even pretend like you aren't," Sokka accused, gesturing with his arms, "This whole journey! You don't think anyone's noticed what has gone on between you too? Aang's just as bad as you are!"

Katara's eyes filled with tears as her hands gripped desperately at her face, a blush forming on her cheeks, "No, no," she whispered in denial, "No, I'm not."

Sokka walked forward as his sister's form crumpled to the ground, sobbing openly into the night air as she muttered words of refusal. The young warrior crouched down beside her shaking form, and wrapped his strong arms around her, offering what little comfort he could give. "It's ok, Katara. He's a good kid, he's a strong kid, he's going to be fine. But you have to take care of yourself too, because if he wakes up and sees you like this, that could be worse for his health than any lightening bolt could ever be." Sokka sighed, rubbing circles on his sister's still quivering back, "He cares about you, Katara."

The exhausted waterbender pulled back slightly from her brother, hair loopies askew on her forehead, blue eyes looking desperately lost as she murmured, "Sokka, how could I have let myself fall so hard for someone? I don't think I can do this, after Mom died...I just can't bring myself to let anyone else mean that much to me," her tears returned, "Sokka, please," her whisper was desperate, "I don't know what to do."

Sokka's own eyes filled with tears as she murmured those three words he had known were true for quite awhile.

"I love him."

The warriors all shared uncomfortable looks with each other, as Toph just merely smiled and nodded her head, patting Basco's fur as he snoozed near the comfort of the fire.

Her brother nodded as he stood her up again, "I know you do."

Katara allowed him to lead her to the tent directly next to Aang's, so that if he woke with another nightmare as he had been doing periodically, she could assist in relieving his pain.

Hakoda sat by the fire, head shaking slightly at how grown up his kids had become. How much pain they had to live through, how they weren't even children anymore. Both Sokka and Katara were practically adults now, with adult heart aches and worries. "It's so heartwrencing that such young children, must face such great losses."

His men nodded in agreement as Sokka exited the tent where he had sat his sister, still quivering and crying.

In the middle of the night, Aang called out for her in his dream and she was there instantly to answer him, now a bit rested and thinking a bit clearer.

"Aang, I can't do this without you," She murmured running a wet cloth across his sweating forehead, tanned fingers gracing along the creases of distress that lay between his brows, "You have to be ok."

A few weeks later, the boy was up and moving. No one spoke though about what had transpired at camp, for Katara continued on as if in denial at her own confession of love for the young Avatar. But no one had forgotten her chilling words, that were murmured in desperation.

"I love him."


End file.
